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Roger BYRT (b.1959)

“My paintings are an ongoing attempt to
depict eternal things such as light, space and form…I love painting objects
that to me, possess monumental and magical qualities…”*

These words go to the core of Roger Byrt’s
art and his approach to painting.

Byrt was born in Melbourne in 1959. Completing a
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art Painting) at Caulfield Institute of Technology (now
a campus of Monash University, Melbourne Australia) he dedicated himself to
painting early. From
1987 – 2001 he held the positions of lecturer and then joint Head of Painting,
Faculty of Art and Design, at Monash. Upon stepping down from teaching, Byrt
dedicated himself to full-time work as an artist.

Melbourne art critic Robert Nelson has said of Roger's work,
"There is an element of compositional rigor in the works and the arguments
within them between surface and illusionistic depth. Though poetic, there is no
rhapsodic dimension: they are all intellectually engineered to form spaces,
shadows and reflection. Byrt's pictorial process has a great purity."**

Influenced by early
Renaissance art, later 16th century Italian art, and by the Scuola
Metafisica artists ( e.g. Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carra), Byrt's
work emits a strong sense of fantasy, musicality, grace and sublimity. They
demonstrate nature in a continuous abstract flux: the physical and the
metaphysical combine.

Byrt's paintings are
inhabited by surrealist metaphors, disjunctive juxtapositions and dramatic
chiaroscuro. Think of the folds of drapery in a Caravaggio painting or the
dramatic, surreal ambivalence in a Georgia O'Keeffe flower painting.

Working in a method
that employs Old Master glazing techniques to create paintings that he regards
as essentially metaphysical, Byrt's works have a sublimely finished, ethereal,
and incorporeal quality. They evoke a sense of visual irony and ambiguity. “...there
are resonances and paradoxes, tensions and areas of serene open space, but we
are offered few clues to these visual conundrums "***

Byrt says: "...I
don't like the idea of explaining the artwork, I try to title evocatively so as
to provide a handle for the viewer. I firmly believe that a good painting
should present more questions to people than answers. I'm interested in making
beautiful things."****

Yet for all their
ambivalence, Byrt's works show great consideration and an enviable painterly
skill.

Since his first solo
exhibition at the now legendary Pinacotheca Gallery in Richmond in 1988, Byrt
has had over twenty-one solo shows including six at Pinacotheca , several with
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney; Axia Modern Art, Melbourne; Eastgate Galleries, Melbourne;
and an exhibition at the Australian Centre, Australian Embassy, Manilla,
Philippines. He has been included in many group exhibitions, and is represented
in Public Collections, including the Museum of Modern Art at Heide; Monash
University and R.M.I.T, Melbourne. His works also hang in many corporate and
private collections in Australia, Asia and Europe.

Roger
has been the recipient of a number of high-profile grants for his work
including an Ian Potter Foundation Grant for a Citibank Commission (Caravaggio
in 3D); an Australia Council Grant for an exhibition at Australia
Centre, Manila, Philippines: and a VCAB Grant to Verdaccio Studios in
Italy. In 1992, he was the recipient of the Diamond Valley Acquisitive Art
Award.

His
work is represented in public, corporate and private collections in Australia
and overseas including, Artbank; Museum of Modern Art at Heide; Monash University;
The Broken Hill Art Gallery: Grafton Regional Gallery: Riddoch Art Gallery:
Dubbo Regional Gallery: Department of Agriculture, RMIT; Lasalle-Sia College of
the Arts, Singapore; Adorna Institute of Technology, (RMIT, Penang); ANZ;
National Australia Bank; Citibank; and The Art Trust.